28, Feb 2018 | CJP Team

According to experts, Syrians will likely file more than two million lawsuits to secure compensation for lost and damaged property, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reported. Syria’s civil war will soon be in its eighth year, and has displaced around 23 million people. According to Laura Cunial, a legal and housing expert with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said, “The main issue is the destruction and damage to property, but a lack of documents and uncertainty over home ownership are also creating huge challenges”. She said at the first Arab Land Conference in Dubai, “If you’re going to have 2 million lawsuits in the courts when the war is over, that’s going to be taking a long time if nothing is done about it before”. The Syrian conflict has resulted in the destruction of Syrian land registries. The country had begun digitising land records prior to the war. Of the Syrian refugees surveyed by the NRC and the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), almost half said the war had destroyed their homes, or devastated them beyond repair. Only 9% possessed their property title deeds in good condition.